


Recovery of the Lost

by RjIsRandom



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Abduction, Bisexuality, Canon-Typical Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-08-27 15:17:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 9,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16704949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RjIsRandom/pseuds/RjIsRandom
Summary: The BAU team are called to Reno, Nevada where a young woman has been found beaten and bruised. Suspecting that she escaped some form of capture, the agents work to find who did this before he can take another girl.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just a small taster chapter while i get through the block on my OUAT fic.  
> Will add more soon so let me know if you enjoyed.

”-Most people were pronouncing it with different variations before the first movie came out in 2001. And then obviously we have the whole debate about the Philosophers/Sorcerer's stone-”

“Reid.”

“-And then interestingly enough, Rowling herself has said that even she gets the names and places of her own invention wrong-”

“Reid.”

“-She even stated that she had been pronouncing Voldemort without the ‘t’ on the end as in her head it sounded French, which makes sense because-”

“REID!”

“Hmm?” Reid looked up from the coffee table, where he was sat next to a young, scrawny man around his age. “What’s up JJ?” he spoke, turning away from his startled conversation partner.

“Spence come on.” She nodded behind her to where Penelope and Tara were waiting. She held out her hand, a take-out mug of coffee in it for him.

“It was really nice meeting you.” Spencer told the man, who nodded dumbfound. They walked together to catch up to the others. 

“Who was that?” the blonde nodded to the man Reid had been emphatically talking to. 

“I don’t know” Reid frowned, checking to see if he ever caught a name. “His tie matched Gryffindor's colors and so we got to talking about Harry Potter. ” 

JJ smiled, knowing her colleague was missing something she was not. “For a genius and a profiler Spence, you sure do miss a lot.” She smiled, waving goodbye at the confused man at the table as they exited the shop. “I don’t think he knew anything about Harry Potter.” She patted him on the back as Penelope walked ahead, talking on the phone. 

“Are we talking about witchcraft and wizardry?” Tara asked

“We would be” Penelope frowned, holding up her phone “but unfortunately for us- duty calls.”

* * *

 

“Give us the breakdown, Garcia.” Emily shut the door as she sat down with the rest of the team, opening her tablet.

“Okay so, yesterday police in Reno, Nevada were called in, someone found the body of a young woman, alive –thankfully- on the Austin Highway. She was badly beaten, malnourished, dehydrated and unconscious. She was then taken to a local hospital and this morning she was transported to another hospital in Reno.” 

“Why did it take them this long to contact us?” JJ asked, flicking through the gruesome photos.

“Well, initially, they thought she was an addict who had gotten lost but once they had her in hospital, the doctors there found no drugs in her system and concluded also that she had been repeatedly abused for a long time.” Garcia grimaced, turning her face away from the photos on screen. They showed the girl’s arms, torso, legs and face covered in bruises, with varying degrees of swelling on her face and arm. “The doctors say she will live but we won’t have any information on our sicko until she will speak to us.”

“That’s if she even will talk to us.” Tara cut in, examining the photos of the victim. “Judging by these photos she has been abused for a long time. You can barely even make out her face.”

Rossi spoke up, having already flicked through her file. “Well, judging by the color of her bruises and the swelling of her face, I’d say our unsub has definitely inflicted these recently. See the slight yellowing along her jawline, she’s been beaten like this a lot more than one time.”

“I know,” Garcia sighed, hating the news she had to reveal next “And it gets worse, my friends. We have no ID on the victim yet, probably because her face has been made unrecognizable. She also gets extremely agitated towards people when they are in the same room as her. From what I have been told, she has allowed them to keep her IV in, but so far has refused to eat any food or come out of the room she has barricaded herself into since this morning.”

“No ligature marks mean she wasn’t restrained, or at the least hasn’t been for some time.” Tara spoke up, noting the pictures Pen had provided on their tablets. “It’s hard to tell what else there is without seeing her, but this is definitely a conditioned emotional response.”

“Even just by looking at the little information here, obviously this has taken a long time to get her like this.” Emily started, already finished with the file.

“He has also taken extra measures with her face, it’s like he has been targeting her beauty.” Reid added.

“Maybe he’s using her as a substitute for a woman in his life who makes him feel emasculated.” JJ suggested.

“And now that he’s finished with her, he will want another girl.” Rossi finished.

“Exactly,” Emily frowned. “Get your things. Wheels up in 20.”


	2. Chapter 2

Garcia appeared on screen just as the team were up in the air. “The girl was found by a Mr. Scott Anderson. He said he was on his way to Reno, when he saw her wandering around in the middle of the road. She passed out a few feet away from him. He sat her in the passenger seat and then called the local authorities who, this morning -as you know, called us in.”

“JJ, I want you to talk to Mr. Anderson when we land, see if you can find anything else.” Emily nodded to the blonde. “How did she get to Route 50?”

“It’s hard to say, the area around the Austin Highway where she was found is pretty scarce, it’s most likely our unsub left her there on purpose. What’s interesting is the state she was found in, although she was badly beaten and starved, her clothes are clean and fresh. They don’t seem to be any kind of uniform or from a recognizable fantasy.” Reid spoke, looking at the photos of the clothes the police found on her.

“What I find odd is they’re comfortable. If he wanted to punish her, he would have left her with no clothes or dirty ones. These are almost remorseful, for leaving her like this.” Rossi stated.

“But why would he dump her on the side of the road? Why not leave her somewhere safe, even just closer to any city? He acts like he cares but at the same time juxtaposes his own actions.” JJ stated, looking through the medical reports.

“Do we think there’s more than one un-sub?” Lewis asked, glancing between David and Jennifer.

“We won’t know more until we can speak to her. When we land, Lewis and Reid, I want you to try to talk to her. Garcia I want you to see what you can find out about Scott, and where he was going. The rest of you are with me at the station.”

* * *

 

“You guys are the FBI?” A tall, pale skinned, blonde doctor walked up to the two agents who walked past the police men blocking the doors to the hallway. He held out a hand.

“Yes” Tara spoke, shaking the doctor’s hand. “I’m SSA Tara Lewis and this is my colleague, Dr. Spencer Reid.” She nodded to her partner, who waved his hand to the doctor before returning it to his pocket. “What can you tell us about the victim?” She spoke, as the doctor took them down a hallway.

“When she got here, we found that she had several healed fractures and two recent breaks that are healing themselves just fine on their own. The previous doctors had to put a cast on her left arm, it was broken clean in two. We’ve given her fluids through an IV, but now that she’s awake she hasn’t allowed us to treat her any further.”

“She kept the IV in?” Lewis asked the doctor, glancing at Reid, who kept silent.

“Yes, she seems to know what’s going on, but then she has also barricaded herself in. She won’t even allow us to hook her up to any monitors.” The doctor stopped walking, they had arrived at a room with glass doors. Blinds blocked the windows, no light emanating from the room. 

“Has she spoken to anyone at all?” Tara asked him, attempting to peer behind the doctor’s shoulder to get a glimpse of anyone in the room.

“No, not even when we tried to get close to her. She was never violent, but we only left her alone because of how … small she became.” He turned towards the room, eyes solemn.

The two agents nodded. This confirmed their theory even further. This response was drilled into her by whoever had kept her. 

“As a rough estimate, how old would you say she is?” Tara asked, eyes flicking back to the room behind him.

“It’s quite hard to say, but she’s probably around fifteen or sixteen. There’s no telling how accurate a statement that could be.”

The agents nodded.  With teenagers held in captivity for long periods of time, starved of food and left with little water, it’s always hard to tell their true age. 

“There’s something else. When we were checking for blood in the abdomen, we were doing an ultrasound and it revealed she had some leftover tissue in the abdomen, along with the results from her blood tests-”

“She recently had a miscarriage.” Reid interrupted, sharing a look with Tara. They now had a reason for why she was dumped in the desert. “You go ahead, I’ll call Emily.” Reid spoke, his phone already in hand.

“Agents” the doctor spoke, glancing between the two of them. “Please, catch the bastard who did this.”

“Don’t worry” Reid said, already dialing. “We will.”

* * *

 

“That was Reid. He says that our victim recently had a miscarriage which our un-sub could have rejected her for.” Emily started, shutting off her phone and sitting down at the conference room provided by the local PD.

“So, our current theory is that he took her in order to have children?” JJ suggested.

“It could be that he wants to recreate himself by having children, by building a legacy.” David added, setting down     coffee for himself, Emily and JJ.

Emily frowned. The contrast between the un-subs own actions was starting to get on her nerves. He was all over the place, presenting as multiple motives. He made his victim comfortable, but he was violent. He cared about her, but then left her in the middle of nowhere. He hated her face and beauty, but then wanted her to bear his children. Nothing added up.

A shrill bell rang out, coming from Rossi’s phone, who answered quickly. “You’re on speaker, Garcia.” He set it down in the middle of the table.

“Okay, Scott Anderson’s story seems to check out. He did have a reservation at a hotel in Reno. He does also have a return ticket back to the UK in a few days just like he says.” 

“I still think you should talk to him Jayje, see if he remembers anything.” The brunette added, already looking up at the boards set up for them. “Maybe don’t let him leave the country for a couple days.” JJ nodded in confirmation. “Thanks, Garica. We’ll call you if we need anything else.”

“Until next time, crimefighters. Garcia out.”

“There’s something else Reid mentioned.” Emily spoke, as Rossi hung up his phone. “He said she let them keep her IV in but hasn’t communicated with anyone or allowed them to touch her. And that the doctor estimates she’s around fifteen or sixteen.”

“That would suggest she knows that the IV is helping her. If she does and has been in captivity for long enough to elicit this much of a response, I’d say she’s a lot older than fifteen.” Rossi added.

“So, she was old enough to know enough about basic health care. She had to have been at least twelve. From the damage done to her psychologically, and the fact that she’s been pregnant -probably more than once, means she must have been taken for half a decade at least, if not longer.” JJ added, trying to formulate a list in her head.

“Agents” The chief of police, a bald, large, muscular man popped his head into the conference room. “Scott Anderson is here.”

JJ nodded, standing up to follow the chief out of the room.

“Rossi, why don’t you go with JJ for the cognitive. I’ll call Garcia back with what we have already.”

* * *

 

The chief led the two agents to a small corridor, where they stood just outside four doors. 

“This door is the interview room” He nodded to the door on their right. “The other is the observer room.” He added, nodding towards the second door on the right. “You guys let me know if you need anything else. All the manpower you need is right back out there in that bullpen.” He nodded behind him, before leaving the two agents behind.  

“He thinks this guy is a suspect.” David noted, turning behind him to look at the chief. 

“Without any leads, and a case this bad...” JJ trailed off. Her hand reached out to grasp the door handle.

Walking in, it was even more evident why the chief believed this man to be guilty. His head immediately snapped upwards when the two agents walked in. Scott had fiery red hair, a strong jawline accented by a short beard. His forehead was sweaty, and he kept rubbing his clasped hands together. JJ glanced at Reid. Now they knew why the Chief suspected him.

“Scott Anderson, my name is SSA Jennifer Jarreau and this is SSA David Rossi, we’re here to talk to you about the girl you found.”

Scott nodded, his eyes never quite meeting theirs. “Do you know if she’s doing okay?” He asked, his voice soft. His eyes finally flicked upwards to meet JJ’s. 

“She’s alive. The doctors are saying she’ll make it through.” 

Scott visibly relaxed. The tension in his shoulders eased, he straightened his shoulders, and held his head higher, his palms remained clasped, yet he did not continue to rub them together. He became more comfortable, his natural confident personality showing through. “Good.” His voice as he spoke was more certain than before. “That’s good."

“We wanted to speak to you about what you saw, when you found her.” David started, making Anderson break his eye contact with JJ. “Close your eyes. I know it sounds odd.” He added, seeing that Scott was eying him hesitantly. Once the man did as was asked, Rossi began to prompt him. “Now, you’ve just packed up from your Clark hike. It’s late at night. What do you do next?”

“Yeah, uh... It started to get dark. I packed up my things and got in the car.” 

“Okay so you’re driving, what do you notice?” Rossi prodded. 

“Nothing. I was just driving for like, forty maybe fifty minutes. And then there’s this shadow in the corner of my headlights.” 

Scott started to sweat again, wringing his hands and furrowing his brow. Rossi needed to pull this information out of him.

“A shadow?”

“Yeah uh, I saw it and slowed down. I thought it was like, a coyote or something. I didn’t want to hit it, or anything.”

“So, you slowed down, what made you stop?”

“It uh, it moved into my headlights. I could see it –her- wandering about ahead. So, I slowed down.” He opened his eyes again, glancing between the two agents. “A-and then I saw that she was- you know, she was uh-”

“It’s okay.” David said, his low voice slow and calm. “Take your time.”

“You slowed down again, what did you see that made you stop?” JJ prodded, making sure her voice was steady to relax him.

“She was wandering around and s-she was you know looking lost and it was the middle of the road, so she couldn’t have come from anywhere. I g-got out and she was mumbling nonsense.”

“What was she saying? Anything specific?” JJ prodded, knowing he wasn’t telling them something.

“N-no. I couldn’t really hear her. When she saw me, she stopped. Then she sort-of hobbled towards me. There was this look in her eyes– like she wasn’t scared anymore. She kept walking – well, stumbling really. And then she collapsed.” 

“And you took her to your car, sat her down and called the police.” the blonde supplied.

Scott nodded fervently. David looked at JJ. Something wasn’t quite adding up. 

“Before we go, is there anything you noticed about her that seemed out of place to you?” He asked.

“No. I don’t think so. Not really.”

“Okay, Scott.” Jennifer started already standing up from her seat. The two agents shook his hands. “Thank you for talking to us today. I’d have to ask you not to leave the U.S. for the next couple of days, if that’s alright.”

“Why?” Scott asked, his voice shaking slightly. “I’m not a suspect or anything. Am I?”

“No, Mr. Anderson. We’d just like it if we could keep in contact with you.” JJ smiled, reassuring the British man.

Leaving Scott with a local officer, Rossi pulled JJ aside. 

“His shiftiness and stuttering seem out of place for a man with his stature. He’s a recluse, sure but I doubt he’s normally like this.”

“You think he’s a suspect?” the blonde asked, glancing at Scott from over David’s shoulder. “When you asked him that last question, he gave three negative responses.” She supplied.

“True, but I think that’s all he’s covering up.” 

“He is hiding something. We’ll just have to find out what.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next update will be for The Starlight Child. If you haven't read that, go do that, too!
> 
> P.S - The muse likes Kudos!


	3. Chapter 3

As Jennifer and David left to deal with Scott Anderson, Emily called Garcia with their list of possibilities.

“Office of copious cleverness, how may I bequeath my brilliance?” 

Emily smiled at Garcia’s antics. They had to get to work though. 

“Garcia, I want you to run a preliminary search for Caucasian girls aged ten and up, with brunette hair, brown eyes, who went missing within the last five to ten years in Nevada and the surrounding states.”

“Have you got anything I could narrow down that search with?”

“What, the Oracle of Quantico can’t get that list for me?” Emily teased.

“I can, it’s just going to take a whole wad of a second.”

“You can have as many wads as you want, Garcia. Just hit us back when you have what we need.”

“I shall return in a few wads!"

“Bye, Garcia.” Emily smiled, hanging up her phone.

* * *

 

Tara took a deep, steadying breath outside the door. She had to go in. She was afraid, the trickle of sweat on her brow and the shakiness of her breath told her this. Yet she could not comprehend why. The victim was not violent, nor was she hysterical.  It made no sense, this fear that possessed her. She had to shove it aside, and deal with it later. The victim that had showed up in the middle of nowhere, battered, beaten and broken needed her help.

She had to play this right. There was no telling how this could go. Announcing herself was a better move than trying to situate herself in the room. She knocked, three short times.

“Hello?” She spoke, her voice soft and motherly. “My name is Tara.”

Nothing. Not even a stir. “Hello?” She asked again, her steady voice a veil of confidence she seemed to be missing. “I need to speak to you.” She tried once more, this time trying to get a look into the room. No movement, no sound. 

She turned back to the corner. What could she do to get into that room? This was the first hurdle, and she couldn’t even get past it.

“Has she opened up the door yet?” Reid asked, making his way down the hallway. 

Tara shook her head in the negative. “I just knocked, said hello. Tried to get her to open up the door.”

“That’s good. Trying to open it ourselves probably isn’t a good idea.”

Tara nodded in agreement. They had to rethink how they were going to go about this.

* * *

 

“Scott isn’t guilty in the way the chief obviously thinks he is.” Jennifer started, walking back into the PD conference room with David in tow. “But he is hiding something from us.”

“Garcia is going to get back to us with that list once she has it. So far, we haven’t made much progress.”

“So, our leads are the girl and the man who found her.” Rossi frowned. 

“Maybe we can start profiling, even from what little we have.” Emily suggested, looking back over the file. “It’s subtle but look at these photos.” She pointed to one of the victim’s feet and another of her hands. “These are old and healed, but they look like scars, from some kind of restraint.”

“Okay, that means that he’s controlling, but he did trust her enough to take them off once she started to co-operate.” JJ suggested, turning to the investigation boards.

“He’s also violent, that’s evident from the photos. If he trusts her enough to not be restrained, then he’s hitting her for his own pleasure.” Rossi added on.

“He’s methodical, violent and has put a lot of effort into this victim, in keeping her obedient.” Emily nodded.

“Meaning he’ll need to plan meticulously before taking another girl?” the blonde asked, looking between Prentiss and Rossi.

“Unless he already has one.” At that moment, Emily’s phone rang. She got up to leave JJ and Rossi to bounce off of each other.

“I don’t think he has more than one. The amount of control he has exerted over this girl means he has to be focused on her, all at one time.” Rossi replied.

“Okay so he has experience, clearly. He needs control and to push his dominance onto his victims. Right now, he’ll be planning another kidnapping.” JJ moved to a board in the room, starting to write down bullet points for their profile.

“He’s most likely male, white and in his late forties. This level of control means he probably keeps his victims at a secondary location, not near to his home or workplace. This guy needs total isolation.” Jennifer copied down each of these as Rossi went. “He also rapes his victims, most likely for the end goal of having a baby with them.”

“So that must mean he has no children of his own.” JJ added, sitting back down at the conference table.

“This level of control...” Rossi trailed off, shaking his head. “She escaped somehow. Either it was during transit to another place-”

“-Or he let her escape on purpose.” JJ added. The unsub wanted the attention, or he had made a mistake. Each option meant he would kidnap another girl within the next few days. “We need to get this preliminary profile out. ”

* * *

 

As Emily dismissed the officers, having released their preliminary profile to them, the chief of police stormed his way through the room, directly towards her.

“Why the hell didn’t you look at that Scott guy?” He demanded, his face a deep red.

“We don’t believe Scott Anderson is the one that did this. He had no reason to, and he doesn’t fit the profile.” She stated calmly, wary of the officers and agents bearing witness to their conversation.

“The hell with your profile! That fucker is guilty!” He spat, stomping into Emily’s personal space.

“Sir, I understand that you want to see justice with this case, trust me –we all do. But Scott didn’t do this. If you want, we can go speak to him again – not in an interrogation room this time.” She acquiesced, making to grab her things from the conference room.  

“Now look here, I let you FBI guys come here to help us, not to let the culprit go!” He yelled, following Emily. 

The brunette turned around, without a trace of anger in her face. “Sir, I understand that you believe Scott is the one that did this. I can assure you, he didn’t. However, I do believe he is hiding something. So, if you will allow me, I’ll go inform the rest of my team that you and I will be interviewing him.” 


	4. Chapter 4

“I’m heading out to speak to Scott Anderson again. The chief believes he’s the un-sub and while I don’t agree with him, I do think Scott is hiding something at least.” Emily said as she walked into the conference room where JJ and Rossi were sat, files surrounding them.

“Garcia hit us back with our list.” JJ spoke, glancing down at the mountain of paper. ”96 women.” She shook her head.

“Will you be able to look through all of those by yourselves?” Emily asked, concern etched across her face.

“We’ll manage. Go find out what Scott was hiding.” Rossi nodded at the brunette as she grabbed her things.

“Call Reid, see if one of them can come back here and help you out. I don’t think they’re going to be able to do much about the girl today.”

* * *

 

“Hello? Please, I need to speak to you.” Tara tried again for the fourth time. She sighed, leaning her head back against the door. It wasn’t working. The girl wouldn’t respond to her. She had to figure out something and soon. 

Reid shook his head. They had no way of approaching this that was good since the girl had barricaded herself in. Any attempt to forcibly place themselves in there with her would be violent and disruptive. There was no way of them getting in there any time soon. 

A harsh ringing sound broke the silence that the two agents had found themselves in. 

“JJ? Yeah, she’s right here next to me.” Reid spoke into his phone, moving away from the door. “Yeah, I’ll see if I can get a ride back with the cop that brought use here. Sure. I’ll be about fifteen minutes or so.” Reid hung up turning back to agent Lewis. “they want my help going through the possible victims. Will you be alright here on your own?” he spared a glance at the door. Still no signs of live from within.

Tara nodded, “Yeah, I’ll just have to keep trying. Keep me updated?”

Reid nodded in response, walking down the hallway and speaking to one of the cops guarding the entrance.

The brunette sighed. This was going to be a long day. She took in a moment to look at her surroundings. It was a large hospital, and this was a quiet wing. Doctors were coming and going, nurses were doing their rounds. It seemed that every so often someone glanced her way. A nurse's station stood in the center of the room, under the glow of the fluorescent lights. Two nurses were sat there. One sat in front of a computer, taking a phone call, while the other seemed to be looking straight through Tara. The brunette frowned, noticing the way she was playing with her strawberry blonde platted hair and chewing her lip. She was worried about something. The victim, maybe? Tara thought, knowing that her gaze was locked on the door behind the agent. The door that a scared teen had hid themselves behind.

Assessing the situation, currently they had no leads and no way of getting into that room. It wouldn’t do any harm to get on the nurse's good side.

“Are you alright?” The brunette asked, walking up to the station and leaning against it, a hint of concern in her voice. 

“Hmm?” the redhead mumbled, eyes still glued to the door.

“I asked if you were alright.” Tara smiled as the nurse finally broke her eye contact with the door.

“What? Yeah, I’m fine. I’m good.” The nurse sat up straighter, pushing her hair back over her shoulder. “Do you uh, need something...?” She asked, looking the agent up and down.

“Agent Lewis. Call me Tara. I just wanted to know what had you so distracted.” She smiled again, glancing at the door to the hospital room , hoping the nurse would get her point.

“Aimee.” The nurse mumbled. “You know, she’s not eaten.” The nurse spoke softly, her eyes drifting back towards the door. “She’s been here two days and on an IV, but she’s not had any food. Lord only knows how long it’s been since she ate last. She should – she should have something.” The nurse chewed her lip once more. “I bet the poor thing is so hungry.”

“Yeah,” Tara whispered, amazed at the thoughtfulness of the young woman before her. “She probably is. Except she won’t open the door. There’s no way we can get any food to her.”

The nurse frowned, looking at her feet. “What if-no.” She shook her head, bringing her platted hair back around to play with the end once more. 

“What is it?” Tara prodded, leaning down to catch the girl’s eye. 

“Well, what if we could get her food without having to open up the door?” Aimee smiled up at Tara, a hopeful glint in her eye. 

* * *

 

“You think they’ll fit?” Aimee asked, biting down on her bottom lip. 

“They just might,” Tara mumbled, on her knees in front of the door. Bringing her chin down to the ground, she sneaked a peak under the door. There could be enough space. It looked like a chair was barricading the door, but on Tara’s right, there was just enough to push them through. “Alright” Tara’s hand reached up to Aimee’s. “Pass me them, I think I can get them under.”

Aimee nodded, placing the tissue holding the crackers into Tara’s hands. The brunette agent took them, laying the tissue level on the floor and sliding the crackers under the door successfully. She smiled. Good. The girl would hopefully take these and eat. Maybe then, she could trust her enough to open the door.

“So now what?” The redhead asked as Tara stood to her feet, dusting off her slacks.

“Now we wait.”


	5. Chapter 5

"96 women?" Rossi asked as the door snicked shut behind Prentiss.

JJ nodded, taking five files for herself and another five to hand over to the older agent. "Yeah. Original parameters were for brown eyed brunettes, taken at around age ten dating back a decade."

"Let's stick to what we know about the unsub. He's controlled, he takes extra precautions to make sure he's all alone with them. I don't think he'd take just any girl." He spoke aloud, browsing the police report of the current file in his hands.

"Say he was targeting her beauty, we can rule out drug addicts. From there, I think we can only go off of individual profiles. You get started, I'll call Spence."

Rossi nodded, going back to his file and keeping an eye on the blonde. She kept toying with her necklace and that was never a good sign.

"Reid, it's me. Are you with Tara? Okay, can one of you stay there while the other comes back to the station? We've got a pile of 96 files to comb through and it just isn't standard enough for the locals to get through. Okay, great. Thanks, Spence."

"Is it the kid that's coming?" Rossi asked, sparing a mischievous smirk.

"Yeah. Hopefully he can push this along." JJ sighed, putting the first file down into a reject pile and dragging another from her first five.

"Are you alright?" Rossi asked, glancing up at her from his report. "You don't seem to be having a good go with this one."

JJ shook her head and rubbed her tired eyes. "I don't know. There's something about this case that just gets under my skin. He's left and right. He has more than one motive. It just - I don't know."

"It's putting you on edge?"

"Yeah." JJ nodded, discarding another case.

They both felt it. The unease that laid heavy in the air. There was a hurdle coming in this case, and the BAU team would be completely blind to it.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Totally a filler chapter, I know but it has purpose I promise. I just wanted to get something out today. Merry Christmas, if you celebrate. Hope you're safe and happy this season :)


	6. Chapter 6

The chief of police had insisted they take his patrol car, and while Emily detested this blatant display of power and knew it would make Scott uncomfortable, she allowed him to take the vehicle. This case was bad enough and with the girl not speaking to anyone and no leads, she understood his need for control.

"So what are your agents doing in that little room of theirs that my guys can't help with?" The chief -Alan, Emily's mind told her- demanded once they were out on the road.

"They have 96 reports of missing people that roughly match the description of the victim. Right now they're looking through them to see if any of them could be her." Emily told him, looking out the window into the city of Reno.

"So what?" Alan spat, gripping tight onto the wheel. "You think my guys can't handle something like that? I got some of the best officers there are 'round here." His chest puffed out proudly.

"I don't doubt that, chief. But we aren't just looking for things you can check off a list. We need to think like the man that did this would have. We need to be in his shoes and ask questions like 'Why this girl?', 'Where did he take her from?' and 'What does she mean to him?'. You can't always find those answers on paper. My team have had years of training and know what to look for." Emily sighed. "I know it's hard to not have any leads right now but we will get there."

Alan deflated. He knew she was right and that the FBI team were there to help, but he just felt so restless. He just wanted to catch the guy so things could go back to normal.

"I don't wanna disrespect you, agent. An' I'm sorry for goin' all angry on you before. But why isn't Scott guilty? He sure as hell was acting like it." He asked. The man couldn't even look him in the eye once they brought him in.

"I think you're right in suspecting him of being guilty of something. My agents believe he is hiding something, but he can't be our guy. Think about it, that poor little girl in hospital is so scared, she has barricaded herself in. She has multiple bruises and breaks of varying degrees." Emily swallowed, the pain of that girls reality settling heavily in her stomach. "That can't have been done in the few times Scott has visited the states. Besides, the other times he's been he was far away from Reno. He doesn't know this place as well as a local would. He couldn't have done it."

"But you think he's done something?" The chief asked, pulling up to the parking lot and shutting off the vehicle.

"Yes. For all we know it could be related to this case or not. But that's what we're here to find out." She finished, unbuckling her belt and getting out of the car. This was good, now that they were on the same page and Alan was less angry, she could speak to Scott without the chief intimidating him as much.

"I'll go see which room he's in." The chief walked up to the front desk, leaving Emily alone in the entry way.

Emily looked down once more at the tablet containing the girls file. She couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. She had to stop this, every time a brown haired brunette girl popped up she was always felt unsettled. Like maybe it was _her_. And she always ended up regretting wishing that it was.

A tap on her shoulder brought her out of her dangerous line of thought.

"You alright?" The chief asked. He had been trying to tell her he knew which room it was, but the agent had been staring into space.

"Yeah I'm good." Emily lied. "Shall we go?" She asked, putting the tablet away.

Alan nodded, leading the way. The brunette followed behind, trying to shake her thoughts away. 

* * *

 

"Oh my god." Aimee whispered, eyes locked on the door. Her arm flapped around searching for Tara. "Agent, look!" She whispered, pointing at the door.

"Shh. Just wait a second." Tara replied, sneaking off the arm of Aimee's chair. "Just a second." She muttered, eyes fixed on the door. A shadow was moving from within. She walked up to the door , her quiet footsteps falling unnoticed among the hospital hustle and bustle.

Kneeling down, she placed her left hand right by the door, her fingertips barely reaching under the door. "Hello. My name is Tara. Can you open up the door?" She tried, making sure to keep her voice and hand steady.

Nothing. Not even a stir. The fact that the girl had not ran should have settled Tara but it did not.

An empty napkin slid back under the door slowly, and Tara sighed. "If you open up I can get you some more food and water." Tara spoke softly. "I can get more crackers instead. Whatever you want." The brunette tried to assure her.

Three soft footsteps. So quiet the agent thought she had imagined them. But if this was what she hoped it was, she needed to be prepared. "Water and crackers." She nodded to Aimee.

The nurses eyes widened and she hopped off her chair to hurriedly hand the agent what she had asked for. Handing the items to the brunette, she stood far back, toying with her hair once more.

And that was it. She hadn't even heard whatever was barricading the door move. The door opened, barely even a centimeter. A shy eye sneaked through, looking everywhere but at Tara. Until it stopped on her. The brunette looked up, a smile in her eyes. She stood up, bending a little to the girls height.

"Hi." She whispered. "My name's Tara. I'm with the FBI." She smiled, holding up the water and crackers. "You can have these." She held up the items, her hands moving to the gap between the door and the frame.

Rapidly, such a stark difference to the slow measured movements of the girl before, she pulled Tara in by the wrist, sticking the door shut behind her.  
  



	7. Chapter 7

"Hey. So, you have a pile of files for me to go through?" Reid shut the door to the small conference room, sliding into a seat next to JJ.

"Here." The blonde handed him more than half of the pile of files left to be read.

Rossi smiled, Spencer didn't seem to mind that he had a larger portion. "We're ruling out addicts but other than that it's just by eye. This pile over here-" he leaned forward to rap his fingers on the four files, "-is the discard pile. The other is the potential victims pile." He nodded to a much larger stack of around ten cases.

"I don't like how big the potentials are." Reid mumbled, slapping a file down on top of the discards.

"Neither do I kid, but this is all we can really do. There's no way to figure out who he'll take next without knowing who he already got rid of. You know that." Rossi eyed Reid. What was it with this case that was throwing everybody off kilter?

"I know. It was just hard having to stand outside that girls room, knowing that she was the key to solving this but that she wouldn't let us in." Reid replied, setting down two more files into the potentials.

"At least while you're here you can help us get through these cases much faster." The blonde agent reached out to squeeze his hand, her eyes still scanning the file in her lap.

"Hey, where's Emily?" Reid had finally noticed the absence of the brunette.

"Speaking to Scott again with the local chief. She was the one who suggested we grab you." Rossi told him, grabbing a new lump of files to sift through. "How's Tara doing with the girl?"

Reid shook his head. "Not good. There was no way to open up that door without us upsetting her in some way. It would be far too disruptive. By the time I left I think she was still knocking and hoping for an answer."

Jennifer sighed, standing up. "More coffee?" She asked, grabbing her empty cup. Both men nodded, heads in their files. She headed out to the kitchenette, grabbed them both coffee and headed back to the conference room. It didn't go unnoticed by the profiler that the local PD weren't happy by their presence and the fact that the agents seemed to be ignoring them.

Keeping her head down, she brushed off the glares and the muttering. Finding them something to do just to make nice was only going to waste time and effort. "This case sucks" she mumbled to herself, ducking into the room to hand the agents their much needed caffeine.

In the time that she had been gone, Reid had gone through enough file to make one thing clear. The prospective victims pile was towering over the discarded cases. "This case sucks." She moaned again, grabbing one of the last few files from the pile they had yet to go through.

The other profilers nodded. This case really did suck. There was no way they could pick their victim out of the haystack. Their efforts were useless. The unsub could very easily get away with this.

* * *

 

"Scott Anderson, my name is Emily Prentiss with the FBI. You spoke to some of my colleagues earlier?" Emily showed him her badge. "Would it be alright if I asked you a few more questions?"

Scott hid behind the door, eying her for a second before reluctantly swinging open the door to the room. He sat in a chair by the window, as the agent and the chief sat on the bed, facing him.

"I thought you asked me all you wanted to ask." Scott murmured, peeling back the curtain to peer outside.

"Scott." Emily began, waiting for the man to cast his eyes her way. "I don't think you were entirely honest with us. Don't get me wrong, none of us," she made sure the chief nodded along with her "think you are guilty of anything. But am I right in thinking you didn't tell us everything?" She asked, leaning towards him.

His eyes said it all. She was right. He knew he should but it was just so hard. What he had seen, what had happened to that girl was just so awful. He shook his head, hoping that these people would just leave him alone.

"Scott" Emily pushed further, "I know this can be really hard for you and you might think it's insignificant, but any extra detail you can tell us would be such a big help. It might be something small but if it can help us understand this man's behaviour then it is so important." Emily pressed.

The redheaded man met her eyes. "She- I couldn't. She was just..."

"It's okay," Emily smiled cautiously. "Take your time."

The man nodded, and took a deep breath. The room was silent for a minute, but he finally found the words to describe what he saw.

"When I found her, she was mumbling and wandering around. Everything else I said was true, you have to know that." He stared hard into the eyes of the brunette agent. She had to know he had no Ill will.

"We know, Scott. Can you tell us what you saw?"

"She-uh. She was n-naked. When she got to me, and passed out, I did put her in my car and I did call the police right there!" He frantically insisted.

"Scott, it's okay you're not in any trouble for this." Emily assured him, patting his hand.

"You dressed her." The chief whispered, finally realising what happened.

Scott nodded, no longer able to speak.

"Thank you" Emily told Scott, rising up to stand. She shook his hand. "If anything else comes back in mind, call us." She handed him her card.

He nodded, showing them to his door. "Will she be okay?"

Emily took a deep breath. "With time and the right help, we're hoping she will be."

"That's not much to go on, huh?" They locked eyes.

"No, it never is." With that, the two left the man in peace.

Emily excused herself from the chief, stepping away and flipping out her phone. "JJ? Yeah, out me on speakerphone." Emily asked, waiting for the agent to do so. "Scott actually found the victim naked. He was the one to dress her in his clothes."

"I knew there was something off about his story! So that means that he wanted her to suffer the embarrassment and shame but he also wanted the attention. He needs us to know he exists." Spencer chimed in, having finished off the pile of files for the agents to go through.

"I don't like the way he plays. He might have a long cooling off period." Rossi spoke up, glancing at the victims photos again. "What if he has a girl already, or has had more than one for a long amount of time? I think he'll have someone else already lined up to take this girl's place."

"I think you're right. The amount of attention that he kicked up with this girl, it would be risky to try and take another. The media doesn't know how long she's been away from society, so every parent with a brown eyed brunette girl is on edge." Emily added, keeping the ball rolling.

"He's not cocky enough." JJ muttered. "He dropped her off out of town. He didn't kill her, he just dumped her. He could have left her in Reno, and she would have lived all the same. He's not cocky enough to kill her, and he's not cocky enough to put her in town. He won't risk it." JJ finished, glancing at the pile of potential victims that had amassed.

"So he already has another girl. How many did you find?" Emily asked.

"35 women." Spencer rattled off the number they were all dreading. "Out of 35 women, he has at least one of them and the other is our victim."

"Okay. Wait there I'll be back as soon as I can." She nodded to the chief to let him know they had to get back on the road. "Start going through with more detail. I think we're going to have to start contacting families." Emily sighed, getting into the car as the chief started up the engine. "Get started, I'm on my way."


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a while. I had exams to get through. I'll be updating my other story soon.

Tara stood, confused. Looking at the young girl she had seen in the photographs was such a stark contrast to the child stood warily in front of her. The young teen's small, dirtied hands were keeping a strong clutch on her arm.

Slowly, Tara moved to her left, making sure that the girl could see she was not blocking the exit. Though her movement was slow and small, the sharp tug on her arm told her it was unwanted.

Quickly, the girl used her right arm to shove the chair back under the door, her hand still strongly clinging to the agent. Tara stood, watching. Unwilling to say anything lest she frighten the girl. The agent knew what she was doing. She wouldn't be harmed by the frightened teen, it was simply her way of keeping herself safe.

Once the door was firmly blocked, the girl took the crackers and water from Tara's hands. Her eyes darted to the agents chest. The brunette looked down, wondering what had caught her eye. It was her ID badge, displayed on her blazer since she was in the hospital.

"I'm Tara, and I'm with the FBI. I work in the Behavioural Analysis Unit." She spoke softly and quietly.

At that, the girl's eyes finally met the brunette agent's.

"T-the BAU?" The girl asked, her eyes pleading.

Tara tries to mask her shock, but nodded, wondering what this girl knew. She could either have been taught to hate the BAU or she could know who they were and that they were here to help.

"Jason. Jason G-gideon." The girl stated, looking straight into Tara's eyes, fearless, her grip on the agent's arm tightening with her need for an answer.

"He... Doesn't work for us anymore." Tara replied. "But anything you needed to ask him you can ask me."

The girl let go of the agent, stepping away. With her back to Lewis, she asked once more. "H-hotchner?" She asked, quieter this time.

"He's unavailable... at the moment." Tara's heart broke. If this girl knew of both of these men, either she had an agenda that had been drilled into her, or she knew them personally. Both reasons struck cold, electric, fear into Tara's heart.

"Derek?" She turned to face Tara again, her eyes desperate and her stance frigid. "Derek Morgan?"

"I'm really, very sorry but he doesn't work at the BAU anymore either. But I can see if I can call him if you'd like, I'm sure if you tell me your name, he'll come." She tried.

"N-no. P-penelope?" She asked, her eyes filling with tears.

"Yes! She works with us, I can call her right now."

"R-really? She always said. She knew people. She always said." The girl started mumbling to herself, a large grin spreading across her face, showing her unhealthy, yellowing teeth. "I never believed. But I memorized the names!" She looked up at Tara, tears spilling out of her eyes. "I memorized the names! I did what she said." She looked at the agent for approval.

Sensing the girl needed her reassurance, Tara stepped forward and pulled the frantic teen into her arms, sitting them down on the edge of the hospital bed.  "You did good." She whispered.

"I did what she said. I memorized the names. I did it." The girl kept muttering, over and over.

Tara soothed the girl, uttering reassurances, even while her mind was elsewhere. She kept telling her she had done well, that she did good, even as the girl cried herself to sleep.

Who had told her to memorize the names of the BAU team from over a decade ago? Why did the girl know all those names? What for? There were too many questions, and she needed answers.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm taking a while to upload more chapters. Hope you enjoy!

“ Is there any way we can narrow this down further? ”  JJ asked the two other agents.

“It’s really a case by case basis.” Rossi replied, lifting the rejects pile and placing it atop a filing cabinet to the side. “I say we go through them all together.” He sighed, sitting back down.

Reid scooped up the topmost case. “Alright then. Trisha  Westfell , went missing in 2006, aged thirteen. She never made it back home from school.”

“That’s definitely a routine. If he watched her, then he’d know where to take her from.” JJ suggested.

“I read that case.” Rossi spoke up. “Her parents said she was bullied, they initially thought she had run away because it had gotten so bad.” He shook his head.

“If you’re being bullied at school, you try and avoid it as much as possible.” JJ shrugged.

“Guys, she was living in a relatively small neighborhood. If she was trying to avoid her bullies, she would change her route to and from school.” Reid supplied, an idea forming. “I don’t think it was her. If she was being bullied badly enough where running away was plausible – there'd be bruises, marks.” He finished, as understanding washed over the other two profilers.

“He couldn’t have taken her. He’s so controlling that he’d want those marks to have been his.” The Italian spoke up. “Can we rule out all bullying victims?”

“Only if it was severe enough for people to notice.” Reid placed the folder to the side. “He controlled his stalking enough to not get noticed, which means he couldn’t have witnessed it happening, or gotten close enough to see if there were any marks the victim was able to hide.”

“Next up is Sara Cromwell, aged twelve, disappeared back in 2009, the mother said she was watching her play on their back lawn when she went to make lunch, when she came back out Sara was gone.”

“That’s really up close and personal, judging by how he left the girl so far out from town, I don’t think he could have been cocky enough to take her so close to home.” The blonde added. “It just doesn’t fit.”

“You’re right.” Rossi replied, grabbing the next file as Reid discarded the other one. “Let’s keep going.” He sighed, opening the folder.

* * *

 

The fraught girl in Tara’s arms had finally calmed enough to sleep. Warily, Tara slid herself backwards, leaning against the head of the bed, the child still clinging to her, even in sleep. She reached for her phone, making sure it was on silent, she pulled up Garcia in her contacts.

** Tara L: Hey.  **

**Penelope G: What’s up honey-bun?**

Tara smiled, even on paper, Penelope’s bubbly personality burst through.

** Tara L: I got the girl to speak to me. **

 She replied hesitantly. She bit her lip. How could she approach this without worrying Garcia? How do you tell someone that they know a victim of a decade's abuse and torture?

** Penelope G: So, do you need a search? **

** Tara L: Not exactly. **

** Tara L: Don’t freak out on me, ok? **

** Penelope G: I make no promises, but sure. What’s going on? **

** Tara L: The girl, she mentioned you by name. **

** Tara L: Not just you, she asked for agents Gideon,  ** ** Hotch ** ** , Morgan and then you. **

** Penelope G: Me? Why? **

** Tara L: I was hoping you could tell me. **

Tara frowned. If Penelope had no clue, was this girl somehow trained to ask for their names? Did the ‘She’ the girl spoke of have a vendetta against them? Before she could question it any further, her screen lit up again with the analyst’s response.

** Penelope G: I don’t know anyone who has gone missing. Like, ever. **

** Penelope G: She asked for Gideon? **

** Tara L: Yeah. He was the first one she mentioned. **

** Penelope G: He’s dead. It made the news. She didn’t know? **

Tara nodded, Penelope was right. The girl couldn’t have been fed this as some sort of sick game by her captor, they would have known that Gideon died, and that  Hotch  and Morgan had left if they were paying any kind of attention.

** Tara L: Looks like it. **

** Penelope G: Want me to phone Emily? **

** Tara L: Yeah. She’s sleeping now, I can’t really make any noise. Let Emily know I’ll stay here  ** ** as long as ** **  I can. I think she trusts me. **

** Penelope G: Will do, sweets. Hit me back when you have more! X **

Tara smiled, tucking away her phone. Pen always had a way of brightening up the tough parts of the darker cases. Staring down at the girl curled up on her lap, she couldn’t help but wonder.

Who was she, and why did she ask for the old members of the BAU?


End file.
